On July 31, 2015, five people were shot execution style in Mexico City: photojournalist Rubén Espinosa, Nadia Vera, Yesenia Quiroz, Mile Virginia Martin, and Alejandra Negrete. Their violent murders prompted the public to demand further investigation, and yet this crime remains primarily unsolved, riddled with loose ends and conflicting stories. In Broad Daylight: The Narvarte Case on Netflix doesn’t seek to solve this crime once and for all. Rather, by using testimonies from those closest to the victims, it explains why these cries for investigation are so loud and why so many people refuse to believe authorities’ version of this tragic story.
IN BROAD DAYLIGHT: THE NARVARTE CASE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The Gist: Directed by Alberto Saúl Arnaut Estrada, this documentary explores the murder of five people that happened in the Narvarte neighborhood in 2015. Initially, the documentary introduces this largely unsolved mystery is a fairly straightforward way. But as the film explores the life of each new victim, three competing narratives begin to emerge. The documentary also exposes evidence of corruption that took place during the investigation. For all of these thoughtful deep dives, the same questions haunts this case: Who really killed these people and why?
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: If a David Fincher directed a far more corrupt version of The Thin Blue Line, you would have In Broad Daylight. The documentary unflinchingly peels back the layers of systematic corruption that define this endlessly complicated case. Like Reasonable Doubt: A Tale of Two Kidnappings before it, it continues Netflix’s trend of taking a serious look at Mexico’s history of governmental corruption.
Performance Worth Watching: Oddly, it’s director Alberto Saúl Arnaut Estrada who stands out the most. In Broad Daylight uses dioramas and full-scale models filled with actors in white bodysuits to reenact what happened the night of July 31, 2015. But it isn’t until the last third of the movie that you see Estrada actually directing and resetting his living dolls. This moment paired with the questions he asks offscreen goes a long way in underlying the fact that we don’t know what happened that night and there’s a disturbing possibility that we never will.
Memorable Dialogue: Out of all the murders, Alejandra Negrete’s is widely agreed to be the one the most devoid of motivation. She did not have political enemies like Espinosa or Vera, and there is no proof that she could have been linked to prostitution, unlike Quiroz and Martin. In most coverage, she was only referred to as a “domestic worker.” In the wake of this public belittling of her life, it’s a quote from Negrete’s daughter Arleth that stands out as especially upsetting. “I called her at the same time they were all being murdered,” Arleth says via translated subtitles. It’s a powerful reminder that in the middle of this vast conspiracy, real people lost their lives.
Single Best Shot: At one point imprisoned former governor César Horacio Duarte Jáquez reveals that he has a framed copy of the magazine featuring Espinosa’s scathing photo of him. That same photo resulted in multiple death threats to Espinosa. Considering that many critics have argued that former Secretary of Public Security Arturo Bermúdez Zurita, a man who worked under Durate, may have been connected to Espinosa’s murder, it’s a chilling admission.
Sex and Skin: None.
Our Take: Most of the time true crime documentaries are far too long. That is not the case with In Broad Daylight, the rare exception that would have benefited from a multi-episode docuseries. There is so much ground that this hour and 48 minute documentary covers that it’s nearly impossible to watch without taking notes. By the documentary’s end, three theories have emerged.
The first is the one that brought this story to national and international attention. It claims that these five were murdered due to Rubén Espinosa’s political enemies. The film takes great care to depict his fraught relationship governor Javier Duarte. Once an employee of Duarte’s, Espinosa released a photo of Duarte wearing a police cap that was used on the cover of Proceso. That photo led to Espinosa receiving multiple death threats. Well before the night in question, Espinosa formed a friendship of sorts with another victim, activist Nadia Vera. Also important to this story is that, since Duarte took office, at least 15 journalists have been killed, and Espinosa was the 88th journalist to have been killed in Mexico.
The second theory has to do with the four women who were murdered. Though Espinosa was the name that made headlines, the political theory doesn’t explain why the other four women were murdered and why at least two of them were attacked so violently. Since there is evidence that Quiroz and Martin may have been involved in prostitution, some in this documentary believe that they were victims of human trafficking and that this was a crime of femicide. This theory is strengthened by Abraham Torres Tranquillo, one of the accused murderers, who had a previous relationship with Martin and said some sexually demeaning things about her.
The final theory is the one that the Mexican authorities posited, and even that still has holes. Police officers claimed that there was a party the night of July 31. The murders that followed were part of a drug dispute. Not only does that not explain Negrete’s presence, but it also fails to account for the violence of these deaths or why there are no witnesses other than the accused. Even if this was a drug dispute, the same accusations of police incompetence arise. Why didn’t the authorities do a better job following up on who was responsible? How do they not know which cartel was allegedly involved?
Even in the most generous reading of this crime, there are still holes. There’s an outside number that was called repeatedly and that officers failed to identify on three separate occasions. There’s clearly doctored footage of the getaway vehicle. There was a violent beating that happened to people Espinosa knew and the aforementioned death threats. One of the security companies Zurita owned was close to the apartment.
What’s left is a crime without a satisfying conclusion, a pointed lack of justice, and a documentary that is doing some serious heavy lifting. It feels safe to say that In Broad Daylight could never be safely made in Mexico. But thanks to Netflix, a skeptical reading of what happened that evening has been brought to public attention and can be viewed in Mexico. Because of this streaming loopholing, there’s a sense that what these documentary subjects, creators, and even Netflix has done is, on some level, dangerous. Hopefully, this documentary will finally lead to some long-awaited answers in a way that is safe for these subjects and this team.
Our Call: STREAM IT. This powerful story demands your attention, and Estrada has worked magic to explain these confusing theories.
